The Doll's Mask
by Bittersweet Treats
Summary: Lucy, Levy, and Wendy find a spell book in the guild's library one day. The spellbook contains a spell that will reveal true intentions and strip away masks that others wear. Lucy wants to try to use the spell on her guildmates. It doesn't end quite the way that she thinks it should have.


**This may have suicidal triggers. Please read at your own disgression.**

* * *

Levu, Lucy, and Wendy were all hanging out in the library reading the day away when Lucy called out.

"Hey guys, check this out."

Levy set the thick book she had been reading aside. Wendy walked out from behind a bookshelf she had been browsing.

"What is it Lu-chan?" Levy asked. The two blue-haired mages walked to Lucy.

"I found this spell book. It has an interesting spell in it. Look!" She pointed to the page.

The three girls all studied it.

 **Chapter 9 (Reveal What is Hidden)**

 _This spell was created and used to find spies during the war. Do not use it without permission from your commanding officer or guild master. This spell should only be used by a professional_ mage _that knows more than one type of magic, as its effects can be detrimental if not handled correctly. This spell can also reveal a genuine personality of someone, and it cannot be reversed. Use this with caution._

 _ **Thee who seeks the truth**_

 _ **Read thine words before you**_

 _ **Hidden truths or masks of secrecy**_

 _ **Reveal the face of the clock**_

 _ **Doll no more, or puppet**_

 _ **Let masks be cracked**_

 _ **Let the truth be told**_

"I wonder if it's still used in the magic council?" Lucy said.

Levy began to think, "I believe that the council still does. But it's not common knowledge because it was implemented after the council chambers were destroyed."

Lucy shrugged, "It sounded like a cool spell. I wonder if it will work for us."

"Why wouldn't it?" Wendy asked.

"We should try it!"

"Lu-chan, that's a bad idea," Levy said as she looked over a Lucy.

Lucy just rolled her eyes, "What could go wrong?"

Levy and Wendy shared a glance.

"A lot."

The blonde female stared at her two friends, "Let's do it though. It will be fun. And it's not like Master Mokarave will not be able to help. If something does go wrong, then he can help us."

The two other just stared at their friend. This wouldn't have a good outcome, and they could both feel it.

Lucy, Levy, and Wendy were sitting at the bar, chatting idly as they waited for more of the guild to show up. The guild around them acted as they usually did.

A table crashed into the wall just to the left of them.

"Are you sure about this Lucy?" Wendy asked one more time.

Lucy nodded, "It will be fun. We can see if Natsu and Gray actually hate each other, or if Erza is truly as hard as she seems."

Wendy sighed. There was no stopping Lucy.

The blonde celestial mage focused on the page that held the spell. A faint golden glow surrounded her. She repeated the spells lines out loud in a whisper.

The air sparked around the guild. All motion ceased, and silence ensued. It was strange to see their ordinarily rambunctious guild members frozen and confused.

"What the..." someone trailed off.

There was a shriek and crash. People looked towards the noise.

Natsu and Gray had been fighting before the spell was cast, and their balance was off. Both of them had fallen on top of each other.

Both of them scrambled to their feet. Gray's face looked pensive as if he was in pain, and Natsu looked panicked.

"What happened?" He asked, looking directly at Lucy. His voice was quiet and lacked the usual enthusiasm that the dragon slayer was known for.

"What did you do?"

Lucy was taken back. How had Natsu, sweet, oblivious Natsu, figured out it was her?

Gray followed the dragon slayers gaze, "Lucy?"

His voice was timid. It was like he was afraid that something would break. That the whole guild would shatter if he spoke.

The master, exiting his office because of the unusual silence, looked at Lucy as well.

"What happened?" His tone told the three girls that they were in trouble if they didn't tell him.

Wendy shifted nervously. Levy looked at her feet before speaking.

"We found a spell book that revealed hidden secrets of the people it was cast over. We all decided that it would be cool to test it out."

Makarov sent a disapproving glare at the three of them, "That was irresponsible and inconsiderate. Is there a way to reverse it?"

Lucy joined Levy in looking at the ground, "No."

The guild master sighed, "When this is over, the three of you will face punishment. But before that, we need to reverse this, or at least dull its effects."

The master moved to take the book from the counter. Lucy backed out of the way so that he could get it. Before the master's hand could touch the book, Mirajane lept in front of him.

"Don't you think that this is a great opportunity to help those that need help?" She asked.

"You'll learn more about your children, right?"

"Mira, as much as I think that is a good idea, it would be irresponsible of me to take advantage of my children like that. They have to come to me of their own violation."

"But Master!"

"Mira! I will not take that selfish action!" the old man moved to shove the white-haired girl out of his way.

The book burst into purple flames. Mira glared at him from behind, her hand raised.

"You should help your children. You're selfish by not taking advantage of this situation." Her voice was a low, dangerous growl.

The guild around her stared at her in astonishment.

"Mira, I know that I should help them, but they have to be ready to ask for help before they can be helped. I can't force them to get over their problems if they aren't even ready to talk about them."

Mira continued to glare at her master, "Then maybe you should know that most of them need help. I've seen some things that can't go any longer without being addressed."

Makarov stared at the demon in front of him. She had tears in her eyes and a pleading tone in her voice. She wanted to help those guildmates, even if it meant forcing them to come to terms with themselves.

"I can't stand to see the pain in their eyes anymore. Please. Help them!"

He sighed, "I will try to help them until we find another book with the spell in it. But when this is fixed, I will not keep helping them if they don't want help."

Mira's magic faded away, "Thank you."

Over the next few days, the Fairy Tail guild master spoke with each of his guild members. From S class to A class.

Well, almost all of them. Natsu had yet to be heard from. As had Gray. They both seemed to be avoiding the guild at all costs. Erza, since the incident had, however, to be punished someone for misbehaving. But, the master had already spoken to her.

Lucy was utterly bored and worried. She regretted casting the spell. Most people refused to even speak to her anymore. It left her lonely. She turned to stare at the bottle of water in front of her and began to think about her teammates.

Natus was sitting in his room on his hammock. Ever since his mask had been forcefully torn away by Lucy, he hadn't left the house.

The pinkette had sent Happy to stay with Lizanna until he figured everything out. The blue cat, not wanting to leave his foster father alone, but not knowing what to do, had left.

Natsu wished that the cat had been a little more adamant to stay. He was alone, and he didn't trust himself.  
It was quiet. Far too for him, and he was beginning to think that he was going insane. He could hear the thoughts he always tried to block with fighting more clearly than ever. The screams that filled his head made it hard to focus on anything else.

Slowly, Natsu Dragneel was driving himself insane. The day was bright outside, but the dragon slayer refused to step foot from his home.

His stomach growled from hunger, but the man didn't move.

"Maybe the voices will stop if I starve to death." He said out loud to himself.

Gray was huddled under a blanket in his room. The AC was blasting.

"It is just a dream!" He chanted over and over again.

The ice mages eyes were red and puffy. Proof that he had been crying for the past couple of days.

"No one is dead. No one is dead. Nothing to worry about. It's just a dream." He was shivering. He sniffled once and then laid back down to try to sleep. Ever since Lucy had cast the spell, he hadn't been able to shove the memories and worries about his family dying out of his head. It haunted him. He hadn't slept that well.

Nightmares plagued him.

The vision of his family falling played in his head again.

Snow littered the ground around his feet. He was back in his childhood home. But the smell of smoke permeated the air. His mother lay dead next to him, her eyes open and staring blankly in his direction. His father was nowhere to be seen, but also probably dead.

Gray walked outside and choked back a sob. There was a pile of corpses in front of him. Rivers of crimson washed them into a pool at his feet. He stumbled towards it.

It was everyone in Fairy Tail. Their eyes stared at him accusingly. This was his fault. Just like it was with Ur. He was the one that caused this.

The ice mage collapsed to his knees. He screamed in pain. It felt like his insides were being ripped out. Tears poured down his face. The wind blew around him, tugging at his clothes. It pulled at him until he was facing the cloud covered sky.

He should just die here with the rest of them. They didn't deserve to die, so he didn't deserve to live.  
Gray opened his eyes and clutched the blanket the was around him tighter to his form. He curled up into a tighter ball. This dream was driving him insane.

Erza gazed listlessly at the cheesecake in front of her. Usually, she would have praised it, but something was wrong. To her, it now tasted bland.

She just couldn't muster the joy she used to feel, and it confused her.

The guild around her was fighting, as they usually did. Things were breaking, magic was flying. She should have threatened someone, but she hadn't.

Of course, not as much damage was being done considering that Natsu and Gray were missing, but that was no excuse for her behaviour.

A table flew over her head and smashed into the table in front of her. The plate with her cheesecake on it went flying.

Some of the guildmates around her stopped and began to stutter apologies. The requip mage just sighed and waved them off. She stood, walking out of the guild and into her dorm in Fairy Hills.

Once she was in the silence of her room, she lay on her bed. Things were so different lately. Ever since Lucy used the spell, things had just fallen apart.

She began to murmur quietly to herself. She knew that something was wrong with her, but she just couldn't bring herself to care at the moment.

And she figured it was ok. She could differentiate the difference between reality and what her mind was making up.

Porlyusica, who was undeniably the healer of the guild, had told her as long as she could do that she would be fine. As long as she could understand what was real and what was not, then she wouldn't have to take medicine. But the spell seemed to have made it worse.

She used to be able to ignore the ghostly shadow of Grandpa Rick when it floated around her. She had disregarded the unearthly screams of people who didn't exist.

When she was younger, she had been convinced that she was being haunted by the ghosts of people that had died in the tower.

Porlyusica told her that is was a mental illness called schizophrenia. The healer put it down to the trauma of the tower, stating that Erza might not have had it if she had been there. It was also something that she couldn't control.

Though, sometimes, erza wished that she could completely block them out.

The scarlet haired woman sighed before turning over to speak to Grandpa Rick.

He had been staring at her sadly, and when she started to speak, his eyes lit up.

"How are you?"

He nodded and gave her a thumbs up. He was probably the only vision that Erza had that refused to speak. She chalked it up to not remembering how he spoke.

Simon walked through a wall and gave a gentle smile to her, "How ya doing Erza?"

"Good," She sighed, "But then again, I am speaking to some hallucinations."

"I can assure you that we are real." His image flickered to a skeleton.

The red-haired woman sighed, she was close to having an emotional breakdown. The stress of the memories that burned in her mind tugged at her conscience.

With one last sigh, she curled up in a ball on her bed and began to silently sob.

Wendy was tired of watching the guild fall apart. As soon as Lucy had cast the spell, everyone had gone home. The next day was relatively typical. Gajeel and Pantherlily went on a quest to escape from the town. Levy along with her team also took a mission. She had stuck with Carla and Mira, spending the day cleaning. The only thing that changed about the guild was the absence of Natsu and Gray, and Erza's strange moods.

The blue haired girl rose from her chair. She had decided that she wanted to go for a walk in the woods. That always seemed to calm her nerves. And while she was at it, she could check in on Natsu.

She walked out of the guild and into the forest. Birds fluttered through the trees around her. She continued along the path, Carla at her side, babbling on about one thing or another. Before they reached the clearing with Natsu and Happy's shack, the smell of copper filled the air. Wendy froze and then broke into a run for Natsu's house.

Natsu had curled up on the floor of his bathroom sobbing. He had somehow found himself here at some point last night, puking up what his body could since he hadn't eaten in days.

His whole body hurt. The voice that had screamed at him before was just getting louder. It was to the point where he couldn't hear anything else. Tears were streaming down his face.

 _"You should just die already!"_

 _"They would all be happy if that happened."_

He could feel his chest grow tighter with each word. He was suffocating on air. His stomach was howling with hunger in his mind. He couldn't find the sweet release of sleep anymore. It was like his body was punishing him for using that as a means of escape.

The pinkette tried to open his eyes. He struggled to stand and reached for the drawer in front of him. Inside was a package of hand soap. He pulled the plastic bin the side to reveal a few razor blades.

He grabbed one and then moved the bin back into place. More tears clouded his vision as he collapsed back onto the ground. A whimper escaped him. He just wanted the pain to end. He just wanted the voices to stop. He just wanted to die.

The blade bit into his skin. Along his shoulder on his left arm, faint scars were visible. He didn't cut as much as he used to when he was younger, but he still did. He hadn't in months though. He pushed the blade into his skin, tearing a long thick line across his wrist. The was no pain in the action. In fact, the voices in the back of his head grew quiet, as if they were watching him.

He sighed and leaned back against the wall. The dull ache that had plagued his stomach was also fading. The pain was finally leaving.

Natsu closed his eyes for a moment, then dragged the blade across his skin a few more times. He cut along both arms. Darkness was edging around his vision. He dropped the blade and closed his eyes.

Wendy raced along the path as panic overtook her senses. The faint smell of blood became stronger. That was both good news and bad news.

It meant that it was fresh, the bad news, there was a lot of it.

The young girl burst into the clearing and then rammed into the door that was locking her out of the house. It gave way under her form. She followed the scent to the bathroom.

Natsu lay on the floor in a pool of his own blood. Tears welled up in her eyes.

There were cuts still leaking blood on his wrists. Dark bags hung under his closed eyes. A small relieved smile was caught on his lips.

The small girl stepped forward and dropped to her knees next to the fire dragon slayer. Her hands began to glow with magic. She used healing magic to stop the flow of blood, but she knew that she couldn't do much more. She needed to get him to Porlyusica.

Then the young girl pulled Natsu up to lean against her shoulder. A pained whimper escaped him, and the tears welled up in her eyes again. She didn't want to cause him any more pain than he was already in, but she needs to get him to the guild.

She managed to drag him a couple of feet before collapsing. She couldn't hold his weight, but she refused to leave him alone.

She covered her mouth to stop the sounds of sobbing from coming out. Natsu was going to die because she wasn't strong enough.

There was a soft voice from the front door. Wendy looked up to see Charla walk in. The white-furred exceeds eyes widened at what she found.

"Charla, can you help me. I need to get him to the guild." Wendy shakily pleaded.

Charla sprouted wings and gently lifted Natsu up from the tail around his waist. Together, the girl and the exceed manoeuvred through the forest in the direction of the town.

Juvia was worried about Gray. She may not have known him long, and perhaps had been too finicky to actually talk to him, but she was still concerned.

Though everyone in the guild was out of wack because of the spell, Juvia wasn't really that affected.

She had nothing to hide.

The water mage had visited Gray's apartment quite a lot since the incident, checking up on him to make sure that he was ok. Most of the time she was turned away as soon as she knocked by Grays strained voice.  
Today, she had gone as per-usual. When she walked to the front door of his apartment, she heard a whimper behind the door. When she knocked hesitantly, the door cracked open.

The face that appeared was now what she was expecting. It was tear-stained, the eyes were puffy. Juvia felt her heartbreak, she reached out to touch Gray's cheek softly.

"Gray-sama?" She asked softly.

There was a sniffle. The door opened more to reveal the ice mage's thin body. Tears prickled at Juvia's eyes.

"What happened to you Gray-sama?"

Juvia reached, and the man fell into her arms. She pulled him into her lap as the two of the collapsed onto the ground. Gray started sobbing again.

Juvia lifted the man into her arms. He was surprisingly light. She walked back to the guild with Gray in her arms.  
When she reached it, she pushed the grand doors open. The guild master was sitting at the bar sipping at his mug of beer. The Guildhall was unusually quiet.

Erza was also in the hall, stood up and raced over to the two of them.

"What happened?"

"Juvia was visiting Gray-sama. He opened the door and collapsed into my arms."

The master nodded to her, "Take him to the infirmary. Porlyusica is still here, and she should be able to take care of him."

Juvia took the unconscious ice mage to up the stairs to the infirmary. Gajeel had returned a few moments earlier was eating some iron at the bar. Erza walked back, calmed down after the guild masters orders. She went to talk to Mira.

It was calm. Gray would be fine.

A few minutes later, Juvia and Gray made their way to the bar. They ordered some drinks, the non-alcoholic kind.

Gray looked tired but otherwise fine. The two of them sat down, Gray's form slumped. Juvia rubbed some circled on his back and a reassuring smile on her face. She had been charged with taking care of the ice mage until he was cleared to take care of himself.

Gajeel, who was sitting next to the two of them stiffened and sniffed at the air. Laxus, who was sitting in the upper part of the guild with the rest of the S-Class mages stood.

The front doors burst open. Wendy was supporting Natsua with a tired sweating Charla behind them, keeping them from toppling over.

Blood dripped from the fire dragon slayers arms and onto the floor of the guild. And both Wendy and Carla had some staining their clothes.

Erza lept to her feet and raced worriedly over to the two of them. She helped support the pinkette until they were upstairs in the infirmary.

When Erza led Wendy down the stairs, their guildmates began to bombard Wendy with questions.

The young dragon slayer looked exhausted. The clothes that she wore were rumpled and bloodstained. Her eyes were puffy from crying.

Master Makarov stood, shouting at his 'children' to shut up.

"What happened my dear?"

Wendy sniffed, "I wanted to take a walk in the forest when I smelled blood. I found him in a pool of his own blood."

She sniffed again.

Gray, sitting at the bar, trying to ignore life slumped again. A chocked sob wracked his body, and Juvia wrapped him in a hug. She started to whisper things to him.

The ice mage untangled himself from the water mages grip and walked to the bathroom.

A silence filled the guild hall. But this was less calm and serene. It was a tense silence.

Things would never be the same. They would never be able to look at their guildmates the same.

* * *

 **This is another red journal work. I hope you all like it. And, I realize that I have improved since I last wrote stuff like this. Hope you guys liked it. See ya in the next story!**

 **~Bittersweet Treats**

 **3867/3917**


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